BHS gets downright defensive

Friday

The Burlington High School football team's defense has been much maligned after surrendering 47 points in each of the Grayhounds' first two losses to open the season.

On Friday night, it was the Grayhounds' defense which saved the day.

A pick six by seldom-used junior safety Diego Trevizo gave BHS the lead and an interception by senior Charlie Carlson deep in BHS territory in the waning seconds sealed Burlington's 33-26 victory over Clinton on Homecoming night in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Bracewell Stadium.

After yielding a combined 94 points in the first two games and 20 points in the first quarter against the RiverKings, the BHS defense slammed the door shut the rest of the way.

This time it was the defense which saved the day for the Grayhounds.

"There is nothing better than high school football. It's an amazing feeling. It's amazing. It's my senior year. That pick was the top of my night. I'm so glad we got a win," said Carlson, who also downed a coffin-corner punt by Gage Webster to pin the RiverKings at their own two-yard line with 2 minutes, 2 seconds left. "We changed our whole defense scheme this week. We decided to go from scratch. We read our assignments, did our jobs and it worked perfectly."

"I'm just doing what they put me out there to do. Coach Yeager keeps gassing me up and telling me to go non-stop. No brakes. I was just trying to take care of business," said Webster, who was all over the field on defense and had a crucial quarterback sack to thwart a Clinton drive in the fourth quarter. "They actually moved me from linebacker to D-end right as the season started. I feel more explosive rushing of the edge than running from behind. That's something I can do. I'm not bragging, but I'm more physically faster than all these bigger guys, so I can get around them and get through them."

"On Homecoming Friday here, to be able to do it in front of our home fans with the crowd we had here tonight was outstanding. It was such a great atmosphere," BHS head coach Zach Shay said. "Again we struggled in the first quarter. We were down, 20-7, and we finally got our footing defensively and they only scored six points from that point forward. We were able to come up with some offense and punch some things in."

BHS (1-2) found itself starring up at another huge first quarter deficit after a pair of fumbles gave Clinton (0-3) a short field.

The Grayhounds' defense clamped down from there, shutting out the RiverKings in the second and third quarters to give the offense a chance to gain some traction.

Senior linebacker Nash Garlow recovered a Clinton fumble at the RiverKings' 21 late in the first half, leading to a 10-yard pass from Brock Dengler to K.T. Thompson to cut the Grayhounds' deficit to 20-14.

That would not be the last connection for Dengler and Thompson.

Thompson, who was injured in last week's 47-20 loss at Keokuk, knotted the game at 20 on a 3-yard scoring run late in the third quarter, setting the stage for the late-game heroics.

Clinton regained the lead on a 33-yard run by quarterback Jai Jensen, who would later leave the game with an injury.

Trailing 26-20, sophomore Bryant Williams made up for his two first-half fumbles, returning the ensuing kickoff 39 yards to the BHS 49.

Suddenly, the Grayhounds sensed victory.

"Me and (Trey King-Tempest, Jr.) we always say, 'Let's take it to the house.' He and I are always back there. We are like brothers. We get each other pumped up," Williams said. "I think it helps us a lot. It gets our energy rolling. It gives us a boost."

"He's got that big-play ability. He's a sophomore. He made a few mistakes in the first half with ball-security issues," Shay said. "But without him and his ability on kickoff ... that's huge. You get the ball on the 50, you go by percentages. They have it if you start at the 20 it's a 15 percent chance you are going to score a touchdown. You start at the 50 obviously your chances go way up."

That set up Thompson, who once again beat the Clinton defense on a wheel route, hauling in a 47-yard pass from Dengler to put the Grayhounds on the Clinton four.

"It was great. I couldn't do it without my teammates. It felt great to be back," Thompson said. "That was a great ball by Brock. That's a great quarterback we've got there. I just went up for it and got it and got it down there as far as I could."

"K.T. came up huge. It was like Superman was in the building. He started making plays," Shay said.

That set up Williams for a two-yard scoring plunge. Dengler's extra-point kick gave BHS a 27-26 lead with 4:57 left.

Moments later Webster and Carlson pinned the RiverKings in the shadow of their own goal post.

"I had so much adrenaline running down there. I was just going down there trying to get the ball down," Carlson said.

"That was pure luck. I was hoping for a good role. The guys just got it down there at the two. From there it was easy," Webster said.

"In games like that, those plays are what make the difference. We call it B.I.A. — Best in America. It's effort and attitude. That's a B.I.A. play," Shay said.

On the next play, Trevizo came up with the play of his life, stepping in front of a Jensen pass at the 22 and returning the interception for a touchdown to give BHS a 33-26 lead with 1:53 remaining.

"I was just in the right place at the right time. I was just trying to do my job," Trevizo said. "It felt amazing. I saw him throw the ball. It was kind of a lob and I just caught it and ran it in."

"Dontarius (Bowens) ended up getting hurt and it's next man in. You have to have that philosophy. So Diego steps up and then they went to an empty set and we had a check for it. He got the check and they threw him the ball. That was huge. It puts us up by seven. That's a huge play. That's a game changer," Shay said.

Carlson sealed the win with an interception at the BHS seven with four seconds left, allowing Dengler and the Grayhounds to go into victory formation for the final play.

"Going into Fort Madison, this is a very good confidence booster. We'll have a good week of practice and hopefully beat Fort Madison next week," Carlson said.

"For the seniors this is huge. For me, this is my first Homecoming win. It's electric here at Bracewell. I'm really happy we could do this for the town," Webster said.

BHS JV 38, CLINTON 14: Tarvais Conard scored on runs of 10 and three yards and had a 60-yard run to set up Adam Fawcett's one-yard scoring run as the BHS JV team improved to 3-0.

Nolan Simpson scored on a two-yard run for BHS, while Ronald Sheard sacked Clinton quarterback Addison Binnie in the end zone for a safety.

"I really just tried to come out and play hard and get the win for my team," Conard said. "We're 3-0 right now. Coach said there hasn't been a record like that here in a while. We wanted to come out and set the stage for the varsity to get the 'W,' too."